Building a Corporate Culture that Works

Creating and cementing a corporate culture that really attracts great employees, retains them, and develops them into all-stars doesn’t always happen organically with every company. The corporate culture will ultimately reflect the owner or leader’s ideals or persona. If you feel that you may need or even want a stronger, positive, more collective culture in your office, there are a few items you can address to help you make the transition.

Outline and set a clear vision of your corporate culture.

Solidify the foundation of the company as a whole – including the look, feel, and presence. Essentially, this is your overall brand feel. It’s not only how you look to clients and customers, but to those who potentially want to work for you. Are you well known in the community and have heavy involvement? Or are you a tech startup with fresh new talent creating the newest app?
It should be clear what you want to create, whether it’s a group of like-minded individuals, or a melting pot of polarized dynamic people in your office.

The culture should be reflected in:

From before the candidate is interviewed
The interview process
The hiring and onboarding process
The initial training and/or probationary period
Full integration to the employee daily work schedule

Get employees who fit, thrive, and embrace your culture.

Finding these employees may be tough and you may spend some time on really sorting through resumes and multiple interviews. If you’re stuck in a jam, hiring “a warm body” is the worst mistake you can make and will prove more costly than if you lose money while you’re waiting to find the right fit. Look for someone who may not necessarily have every skill, but is trainable, will meld with the company culture, and wants to grow with your company.

Create a fostering environment.

You’ve hired the best-fit people, right? Giving your labor force the opportunity to learn, advance, and be successful is a great tool to build a culture that wants to help themselves, each other, and ultimately the company. Unless you’re a manufacturer (or related industry) who needs assembly line workers who thrive on monotonous tasks, create the environment that employees will flourish in. It’s human nature to yearn for advancement.

Embrace mentorships.

If you’ve hired the right person, you’re on the correct path. It is however, a journey. Mentoring can provide another level of support for the employee. They have someone at the company who’s at an upper echelon, who they can look up to, see their actions, learn from it, and put those skills to work.
If you’ve built a company with a culture in mind and have created and developed a solid foundation, then as this rolls down through all your employees, you’re creating an environment that can truly push your company into success.